MUSKEGON, MI -- An Oakridge school board member has resigned
after her work as a substitute teacher in the district was deemed a conflict of
interest.

Trisha Lowry resigned Feb. 6 after saying in November she would
give up substitute teaching in the district rather than resign from the board.

"I told the board I would be on the board until financially
I couldn't do it any longer because that was my income," Lowry said in a recent interview. "My heart and passion is here in Oakridge, but finances was a big
reason for it ... It was time for me to take care of my family."

Lowry was elected to the board in 2009, and began
substituting in the district three years ago. Because the district contracts
with a private firm, PESG, for substitute teachers, she was not directly
employed by the district.

While updating its conflict-of-interest policy, the board sought
legal opinions about board members working for a third-party contractor, said Oakridge
Superintendent Tom Livezey. School districts are increasingly privatizing their
employees through such contractors.

The board engaged in a thorough review of recommended
policies and legal opinions before approving its updated policy, Livezey said.
In addition to barring board members from working for third-party contractors,
the policy tightens up other restrictions on board members with relatives
working in the district, Livezey said. Such board members must not only refrain
on voting on issues that impact relatives working in the district, but now
cannot discuss such issues either, he said.

Board Treasurer Brent
Hartman's mother works in food service and Trustee Craig Scott's wife is a
secretary in the district, Livezey said. The new policy means that those board members,
for example, can't discuss contract negotiations for food service and secretarial bargaining groups,
he said.

"The board took a very deliberate approach to this," Livezey
said. "It was a tough decision because it impacts the very people you're
sitting around the table with."

In a statement she read to the board when it voted on the
policy last November, Lowry said she disagreed with the language impacting her
work as a substitute. She noted that because her husband is a teacher in the
district, she didn't vote on teacher union contracts with the district.

"I have never put myself in a position of conflict while I
am in the classroom," Lowry said in the statement read at the Nov. 6 board meeting.
"Do I see things that don't get done in our buildings and they were promised by
our superintendent and by our board of education? Yes, but I never came
knocking on doors and pushed the issues. Maybe I should have."

Lowry was among three board members who voted against the new
conflict-of-interest policy. The others were Hartman and Vice President Steve
Crain.

When interviewed about her resignation, Lowry said she believes
the policy went too far.

"There was no reason for it; there were no problems," she
said. "It wasn't about me -- that's what they said. But I was (substituting at
Oakridge) for three years. That's what kind of bothers me."

The board is currently accepting applications from district
residents interested in filling the seat left vacant by Lowry's resignation.
Board members must be a registered voter in the district, at least age 18, a
U.S. citizen and a resident of Michigan for at least 30 days.

Applications are available in the district administration
office, 275 S. Wolf Lake Road, and must be returned by 4 p.m. Feb. 20 to be
considered.

The board seat expires Dec. 31 and will be up for election
in November for a six-year term.